Abhinav Singh - Week 6

Abhinav Singh
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                                                                              UNTOUCHABLE TO DALIT


In this week’s summary I would summarise the chapter Dalit-New cultural context for an old Marathi word from the book Untouchable to Dalit, the most intriguing part of this chapter for me was how the writer drew similarities between the Black Literature and Dalit Literature. In the 1970s there were two major movements of the Dalit’s that gained prominence within the English press, which was named the Dalit Panthers and Dalit Literature, which were inspired by the American Black Panther and Black Literature.

The Marathi word Dalit was chosen by the group itself and used proudly just like the word Black, this was their way of unifying the marginalised groups by giving them a common identity. Dalit writers were profoundly interested in the Black Literature, and saw their own movement as a similar phenomenon. Janardan Waghmare was one such writer who wrote extensively on the possible similarities between both the groups like the atrocities faced by them from their own countrymen, both Blacks and Dalits for a long period were on the path of self-hatred which further jolted their rise from the biblical myths created to imprison them in this fatalism.

There was reference of the word Black in the Dalit Literature such as Daya Pawar’s
Poem ‘Harlem’, but the main influence or impact the American Black Literature had on Dalits was that after seeing the Blacks progress, create and write they started believing that they can also survive in the hostile society just like the way Blacks survived.


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